World Food UK

Krispy Creme donuts, Whole Foods grocery, Starbucks coffee -- all you need as an American to survive in London is right there in London.

These are just the ones we noticed, there probably are others.

One item you must buy with care is toilet paper. The humble wipes are surprisingly tricky. We found what is best called narrow gauge toilet paper, which may pose a problem to the, let's say, standard gauge American rear.

You can use the narrow gauge but it requires paper folding skills, TP origami if you will.

The changes in London food are nothing short of incredible. Have you ever encountered real British Fish & Chips?

The kind with wide potato wedges, not the whimpy shoestring like French fries served today? The original fish & chips, right out of the grease, plonked on several layers of the daily newspaper, wetted down with extra vinegar?

If you have never had them, you never ever will. They are gone.

The number of fish & chips vendors in all of London is down by 99%, replaced with an assortment of good to excellent world foods, from the Doners via the Italians to whatever fresh goodness you might enjoy. If the plethora of fruit stands doesn't do it for you, there's always the Burger King/McDonald's patty.

Traditional British cuisine, all your food cooked into a mush of a generic grey color, with salt as the only known seasoning?

No more.

And only one British born food service worker in all of London, at the Museum of Childhood. Everybody else hails from some non-UK place, mostly Eastern Europe.

Other than the lone food worker, we met two real Londoners, a few "misc." English folks and nothing but immigrants. Which makes it more understandable that the food changes too.

No need to worry, though, the street cleaners are still almost exclusively black.